Tian Heong Chan
Associate Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management | Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Atlanta, GA, UNITED STATES
Chan's research focuses on the decisions and dynamics of how teams go from ideas to products.
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Biography
Tian Chan joined Goizueta after completing his PhD in Technology and Operations Management from INSEAD. He also holds a MS degree in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford, and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley. Previously he led technology and operations development projects at PSA International. His research focuses on new product development processes, specifically the effects of individuals coming together to perform different sorts of work in the product development process (e.g., collaborative design, complex problem-solving, customer-supplier co-production, collective action, etc.).
Education (3)
INSEAD: PhD, Technology and Operations Management 2016
Stanford University: MS, Management Science and Engineering 2003
University of California, Berkeley: BS, Mechanical Engineering 2002
Areas of Expertise (4)
New Product Development
Service Innovation
Project Management
Technology Management
Publications (7)
The Emergence of Novel Product Uses: An Investigation of Exaptations in IKEA Hacks
Management ScienceT. H. Chan, S.-Y. Lim
2023-05-01
2023
When do teams generate valuable inventions? The moderating role of invention integrality on the effects of expertise similarity, network cohesion, and gender diversity
Production and Operations ManagementT. H. Chan, H. Liu, S. Keck, W. Tang
2023-01-01
2023
Business Method Innovation in US Manufacturing and Trade
Manufacturing & Service Operations ManagementT. H. Chan, A. Bharadwaj, D. Varadarajan
2023-01-01
2023
Anchored Differentiation: The Role of Temporal Distance in the Comparison and Evaluation of New Product Designs
Organization ScienceT. H. Chan, Y. G. Lee, H. J. Jung
2021-11-01
2021
Revisiting the Role of Collaboration in Creating Breakthrough Inventions
Manufacturing & Service Operations ManagementT. H. Chan, J. Mihm, M. Sosa
2021-09-01
2021
Contracting in Medical Equipment Maintenance Services: An Empirical Investigation
Management ScienceT. H. Chan, F. de Vericourt, O. Besbes
2019-03-01
2019
On Styles in Product Design: An Analysis of U.S. Design Patents
Management ScienceT. H. Chan, J. Mihm, M. Sosa
2018-03-01
2018
Research Spotlight
In the News (5)
Why Simultaneous Voting Makes for Good Decisions
Emory Business online
2025-02-12
How can organizations make robust decisions when time is short, and the stakes are high? It’s a conundrum not unfamiliar to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Together with Panos Markou of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Chan scrutinized 17 years’ worth of information, including detailed transcripts from more than 500 FDA advisory committee meetings, to understand the mechanisms and protocols used in FDA decision-making: whether committee members vote to approve products sequentially, with everyone in the room having a say one after another; or if voting happens simultaneously via the push of a button, say, or a show of hands. It turns out that when stakeholders vote simultaneously, they make better decisions. Drugs or products approved this way are far less likely to be issued post-market boxed warnings (warnings issued by FDA that call attention to potentially serious health risks associated with the product, that must be displayed on the prescription box itself), and more than two times less likely to be recalled. The main reason why these changes happen, however, has less to do with the voting mechanism itself than to positive changes in the discussion.
Unpacking the Innovation Process
Emory Business online
2022-07-25
Have you ever looked at a table or chair, stool, or other household item and thought, “I can use this another way”? If you have, you might be an innovative hacker, someone who operates from a product-first search process, which is the opposite of the “classic” problem-solving method. Tian Chan, assistant professor of information systems and operation management, worked with long-time friend and fellow researcher, Shi-Ying Lim, assistant professor of information systems and analytics at the National University of Singapore, to see if starting with a product generates more novelty (or uniqueness).
Most & Least Innovative States
WalletHub online
2022-03-23
How can state policymakers encourage and facilitate innovation? Innovation tends to have significantly positive geographical spillovers (meaning firms, institutions, or individuals at close locations benefit from frequent collaborations, sharing of ideas, etc.). So fostering/encouraging some kind of innovation hub (if none or few exist in the state) whereby such positive benefits of co-location can happen would be a good start. I also think that the presence of maker spaces or coding spaces where young kids can play and tinker with building products/software codes is useful to encourage innovation from a young age.
Successful products need to stand out … just not too much
Resoundingly Human online
2021-02-18
Joining me to share their research in this area is Yonghoon Lee with The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Tian Chan with Emory University. Their study, “Anchored Differentiation: The Role of Temporal Distance in the Comparison and Evaluation of New Product Designs,” selected for publication in the INFORMS journal Organization Science, looks at how consumers evaluate new product designs and how this can benefit product designers.
When Individuals Are More Innovative Than Teams
Harvard Business Review online
2019-12-31
"...However, our research has uncovered a factor that plays a key role in determining whether team outcomes will be superior to those of lone inventors: the structure of the invention — that is, the extent to which the invention can be broken down into separate components or 'modules.'"
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